Moanin For Motrin

That's what I was doing last weekend when I finished the Coeur d' Alene to Sandpoint Walk Relay Race! My BF Beth asked me to join her team to walk with her during her legs of the race. I thought, "Cool it will be fun to walk with Beth while we catch up." But it was way different than a leisurely walk with a friend. First of all, it was actually a race. So we were speed walking the WHOLE time (you got disqualified if you ran). It was so intense. There was not one part of my body that wasn't in pain. Beth and I did awesome though. We averaged about 12.5-13 minute miles. We had three legs and totalled about 15.5 miles! Our team won by a long shot. But we can't feel too good about it considering we were about 20 years younger than anyone else walking in the race. Here are some picture of our fun adventure. PS, the pictures are very out of order.


Beth and I relaxing on the grass after a very long night of walking and trying to sleep in a car.

This is on our second leg of the race. 4.7 miles of constant hills. This was definitely the worst part of the race.

This was after we finished when we were announced the WINNERS!

Mine and Beth's first leg was also the Wildest Wig contest. We had to walk 6.6 miles with these huge wigs on our head. Not the most comfortable, but it was beautiful scenery.

The team before the race began

This is us finishing our first leg on the Coeur d' Alene lake.

Me and my BF Beth

The race was a ton of fun and I can't wait to do it again next year. Maybe we will even try the Spokane to Sandpoint Run relay. It was pretty freaky though when you are walking at 2:30 in the morning on a dirt road in the forrest with animals howling around you. It was quite the adventure. Thanks Beth for inviting me to go.

Hats Off to Leavenworth

The girls and I were able to take a quick trip over to Leavenworth last week and we had such a great time. My mom and niece Madyson joined us for some nice relaxing and fun filled days. Going to see Gloria and Pat is always fun, but we also spent some time downtown, went swimming a lot, jumped on the trampoline A LOT, ate great food, and watched some interesting movies. I have a lot of pictures to show what a good time we had.

These pictures are from the Hat Shop in downtown Leavenworth. It is a famous shop that has a lot of crazy hats. Makenna and I had some fun modeling the hats for my mom.





The rest of the pictures are just the random things we did while visiting Leavenworth.









Believe it or not, Kyra did come on this trip with us, but you know how much she hates taking pictures! Oh well.

The main reason we went down to Leavenworth was to FINALLY put the grave marker in the ground for Annabelle. Brett came down Friday night and we put it in Saturday morning, then had to leave Saturday afternoon. Poor Brett only got a quick trip. It is weird that I am posting this? I hope not. Hopefully I don't offend anyone.

Summer Time Fun

There have been a lot of activities that have been going on this summer and I have been too busy to blog about them all. So I am doing one big blog about all of them!

Yay For Me!

Well I did it! I finally got a CONTINUING kindergarten position. This means that I dont ever have to interview for a job again. I don't ever have to worry about if I am going to have a job the following year. I don't ever have to teach in someone else's room again. I don't ever have to prepare for a classroom a week before school starts again. I am so excited. It is a full time job with two part time classrooms at Windsor Elementary. I just feel that Heavenly Father has blessed me so much in my life and knows what is best for me. I know that I wouldn't have get this if it wasn't for Him. The following picture is of me and my teaching friend Melissa and Rebecca. We went out to celebrate because Rebecca, who just graduated also got a job! Both of them a extremely amazing teachers and I am grateful that I got to work with them

Blasts from the Past

This summer I was able to get together with a couple friends from my single days and it was SO much fun. This is one of the best things about summer is having time to hang out with friends.

This is my friend Jen from my first year in college. We were next door neighbors in the dorms (for the one quarter I lived in them). We clicked right away. She is very religious as well so we were like the to naive girls in the dorm that stuck together. When we got together it was like we didn't miss a day apart. It was so much fun!


Of course one of my favorite people in the whole entire world...Sarah! She came back home for her nieces' blessing and it was so amazing to see her. I cant wait until the day you move back here Sarah!



Last is my life long best friend Jen (now Jen Martin but I still and probably always will refer to her as Jen Jolley). Jen, Beth, and I were roommates in college for about 4 years. I love these girls to death and I am so grateful for my friendship with them. Jen came up from California to run a 1/2 marathon (because she is amazing at working out and pushing herself to do cool things), so we decided to meet up and do a little boating. It was so much fun. I miss Jen so much and every time we get together it makes me miss the days when we lived in Sweet 8 and all the amazingly cool things that went on there.

Fun Wedding

The girls' aunt, who is also one of my friends, got married a couple weeks ago. Kyra and Makenna were in the wedding and they look absolutely adorable. Here are some pictures of how cute they looked.

This is Rebecca, who looked absolutely amazing, and our friend Melissa. We all worked together at Windsor last year. It was so great to work with them.
Does Kyra look way older than 12 to anyone else???? Yeah she looked fantastic and did a great job as a bride's maid. It is just amazing how much these girls are growing up.

Makenna with her cute flower girls cousins.



Grooving down to the music.

Silverwood

One day I was able to take the girls to Silverwood and we had so much fun. Makenna was with a friend that day so she didnt come, but Kyra brought a friend and my niece Madyson went with us. The girls had a lot of fun, even though it was kind of cloudy weather.

Kyra and Tessa

My niece Madyson

So there you go all the activities you all have miss out on. Just a quick update on my summer goals:

1. Organize and clean out basement...Done, and it looks AWESOME.
2. Exercise at least 5 times a week...I am doing pretty good, although there were weeks when I was a little lazier than others.
3. Deep clean every room of the house....Oops, not yet, but it will definitely get done before school starts.
4. Make Brett dinner at least three times a week....Barley making this one, but hey it's summer and we are hot and not in the mood to cook or eat, so I am fine with this.
5. Get very tan.....yes, and loving it! Some of my favorite days are just laying in the sun!
6. Focus on my calling more....Check, I feel very good about this since I probably won't be this good starting September.
7. Get a job........YES!!!!! Yay for me. I can't wait to be a kindergarten teacher again!

On the Road Again

Brett and i just got back from a fabulous road trip to the mid-west. We went through 9 different states and saw some of Brett's old friends. The main reason for going down was to see some friends from Brett's mission. But my favorite part of the trip was all thr church history! Here are some collages of the different things we did.


The first stop we made was in Sterling, Illinois. Brett used to live in Illinois, so he had a couple friend there he wanted to see. They took us to Chicago, but we didn't have much time there. But we did get to go up the Sear's tower. In my opinion, it wasn't worth the TWO HOUR wait to get up there. But we did get some pretty good pictures.

Our next stop was Nauvoo, Illinois. This was absolutely amazing. We were there for the pagent that they do, and they really make you feel like you were in the time of the early Saints. We went to Carthage this day as well and that was probaby my favorite. All the missionaries there do such a great job of setting everything up spiritually before you learn anything. This was my favorite day of the trip.

After Nauvoo, we went over to St. Louis, Missouri to see a friend from Brett's mission. We were able to go see the famous Arch and visit the temple. It was fun to hang out with Brett's friend as well!

On our way home we stopped at Independence, Missouri to see the Visitor's center and Liberty, Missouri to see Liberty Jail. This was probably the most meaningful day. The spirit at Liberty Jail was so amazing. It really puts into perspective what Joseph went through for our gospel. I was amazed and overcome with gratitude for the sacrifices for the early Saints!

It was a great trip and I highly recommend to everyone to one day visit those sights.

Silly Kyra

Kyra's young womens had a yard sale a couple weekends ago. For her, the whole time was spent finding the most rediculous outfits to show off. It was a lot of fun!